Your Bendable Screen – Hidden in Crab Shells?

Japan’s Kyoto University’s biologists are using inspiration from nature to help further along developments in the construction of flat panel displays, solar cells, and bendable screens. Headed by Muhammad Iftekhar Shams, the Kyoto research team utilize the translucent chitin (main component of crustacean exoskeleton) that they have extracted through various chemical process on a dead crab shell to create a optically transparent panel.

Benefits of chitin includes but is not limited to the following:

Does not expand or lose stability when heat is applied

Ten time as resistant to heat compared to traditional materials

Bendable

High light transmittance

Is an abundant resource found in nature (crabs, lobsters, shrimps, insects…)

About Wen Duan

Wen studies electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley, works as an IT, and participates in high-performance computation research. Along with consuming an absurd amount of television, movies, and books, she is infatuated with making the web her source of media as well as sharing them with anyone she can!